Archive for the ‘Email’ Category

Real Writing: Responses

Kids vs. Curriculum

Here are a pair of responses that came after I shared the Real Writing message the last time. I thought I’d throw them out again for your consideration.

Dear Julie,

I just have to comment! The best thing I EVER did in our homeschooling adventure was to permanently shelve all the curricula that “teach real writing”. It happened when my incredibly verbose but extremely “grapho-phobic” (syn. “reluctant writer) third-grade son just kept on staring at a blank page trying to come up with something to write about “Tom the Thanksgiving Turkey.”

“I don’t care about Tom the Turkey. It’s a stupid assignment.

Well, do you blame him? Frankly, I didn’t care about Tom either! In fact, I was tired of the tense times associated with writing. So, we shelved it all. Instead, we concentrated on reading, and talking, and letter writing, and more talking, and more reading. At times, he dictated to me what needed to be recorded. I felt a bit negligent, and, on occasion, did look over my shoulder to make sure the Writing Gestapo wasn’t snooping around.

A breath of fresh air blew in when I attended your workshop on Helping the Reluctant Writer. Validation at last! I bought The Writer’s Jungle and have never looked at another writing curriculum since.

Fast-forward seven years: My reluctant writer is as competent with a pen as with his persuasive tongue! Last year, I did purchase the Help for High School, and he worked through it pretty much independently. Since the axiom “think before you speak” has always been important in our home, organizing thoughts on paper for academic writing has not been an issue. I do have to admit, he still doesn’t write for fun. However, what he puts on paper is fun to read (even essays).

Here’s the cherry on top from my now 16-year-old young man. “Mom, I’m glad we did all that Brave Writer stuff. I can just sit down and write whatever I need to write. It’s just no big deal anymore.

Wonderful, because he is starting college courses this fall.

Here’s to REAL and ALIVE writing (even essays and reports)!

Victoria

And ironically, the other one is by another Vicky:

Julie,

I would just like to add my 2 cents in support of what you just wrote. I have 2 boys in college- one at MIT and one at UVa, both homeschooled the whole way. They are obviously very smart guys, and tested well. However, using every writing program under the sun, (except yours), I slowly taught them to hate writing.

My 10 year old was a natural writer, until I started teaching her writing. She was following the road of hating it too. Then I discovered you. For 2 years, I just used your blog and free suggestions. I just recently purchased The Writer’s Jungle and use it loosely. My girl has rediscovered the joy of writing. As a result, she wrote a 20 page research report (4th grade) on carnivorous plants, and a 30 page book utilizing as many words as she had never heard or learned the meaning of, incorporating them into a delightful saga of the adventures of her beloved pets.

These were her own ideas, and she would beg to do them. I didn’t need a language arts, vocabulary, or spelling program, or even literature as she would teach all these things herself in her delight with her own writing creations.

I too feel a bit of fear that maybe she is not getting everything she needs but she tests at a college level in language art skills and I suspect the less I intrude upon her natural drive to learn at this point, the better off we all will be.

I cannot emphasize enough that writing programs, good ones, were killing her desire to write.

Thank you from the bottom of my weary 14 years of homeschooling heart.

Blessings,
Vicky

Help for High School and The Writer’s Jungle are the two products designed to help you discover how to get to the kind of writing these moms share about.

Write for Fun!

Posted in Brave Writer Philosophy, Email, General, Homeschool Advice, Young Writers | Comments Off on Real Writing: Responses

Another use of an English degree (HT JoVE)

JoVe likes to send me articles every now and then. They are always wonderful! Today she slipped the following one into my in-box related to another use of an English degree. This one shows how one academic found a career teaching writing in a big law firm. I got a special kick out of it because my dad is a lawyer and I’ve long argued (ha!) that my bent toward academic writing was fostered and nurtured through his rigorous approach to any debatable topic at the dinner table. I grew up, essentially, learning how to create an argument from my earliest memories. Not only that, lawyers do a tremendous amount of writing. The care with which trial lawyers must prepare opening and closing statements is every bit as conscientious as any academic preparing a thesis or scholarly journal article (if not moreso since justice and money are always on the line!). Think how many lawyers-turned-best-selling novelists there are, too. 🙂 I remember my dad writing a novel into his dictaphone when I was in high school. (He never did get it published though.)

With all that personal background out of the way, check out this article: From Global Lit(erature) to Global Lit(igation).

A big litigation firm like ours is filled with nothing but writers. One lawyer here, in fact, tells people that he is a writer when they ask his occupation (insert joke about lawyers’ public perception here). My main duties are twofold. I travel to our offices around the world twice a year and conduct seminars on all aspects of the writing process, from punctuation to Aristotelian argumentation. I also work with associates and partners individually on their writing (what the corporate world calls “coaching” and academe calls “tutoring”), either in person or over the phone. They contact me at any point during the writing process. I sometimes answer questions on the spot, but it’s much more common for lawyers to send me a draft, which we meet to discuss.

My job is endlessly rewarding. I work in a five-member office of professional development. Three of us have Ph.D.’s, all in different fields. I teach an enthusiastic population: Professionals, especially those who write for a living, are eager participants in the learning process. Some of the intellectual-property and antitrust cases are fascinating; unfortunately, I am not permitted to tell you about them.

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Posted in Email, Tips for Teen Writers | 6 Comments »

Email: What to do with an English Major

Dear Julie,
I own and have enjoyed your two writing books with my homeschooled children.

I recently read about your background on your website and would like to ask you a couple of questions.

My 11th grade daughter is thinking of majoring in English with teacher licensure. She would like to teach English, write books, and is also looking into what else she could do with an English major.

I read that your husband majored in English and was wondering what kind of advice he could give to someone in this major. What suggestions would he or you have for her to be successful with her college classes and beyond?

Any comments, suggestions, and advice for my daughter would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you.

Blessings,
Sabrina

—

Hi Sabrina’s daughter!

Wonderful that your daughter loves writing and English so much. My husband was hooked on literature which is what led him to his major. There are some unique opportunities that go with being an English major, but, in the interests of full disclosure, I should add that many of them don’t pay well. 🙂

English majors often go into teaching, editing (for a publishing company) or some kind of communications role (sales, marketing, technical writing, copy editing) of big companies. Writing (as in, writing to make money) is the least likely to earn a person a living, though plenty of English majors (or creative writing majors) attempt to get published. My mom, who works as a full-time author of over 65 books, says that the vast majority of writers earn only part of their income through their writing. They almost always combine their writing with teaching.

So teaching is clearly a popular choice and a good one. Jon went into the Peace Corps after his major in English and earned his credential while teaching English as a foreign language in a Moroccan high school. He returned to the states where he earned his MA in American Literature and has been able to work as an “adjunct professor” at multiple universities in both California and Ohio, as well as a high school English teacher. Teaching’s been a great outlet for him as he worked in other full-time jobs.

Jon just mentioned that the English degree is perfect if your intent is to teach junior high or high school English. It dovetails beautifully with that ambition. The teaching path offers a good living with excellent benefits and is conducive to family life, too.

Jon also worked as an editor at a text book company, which is yet another way to earn a living off of a degree in English.

I, unconventionally, majored in history. My writing has been both avocation and vocation. I found that my interest in writing had less to do with literature and more to do with issues: with non-fiction content. I earned my MA in theology which also called on my writing skills. It isn’t necessary to major in English to become a writer (just want to point that out). And some teen writers would do better to major in journalism where more writing jobs are available than can be had through “writing novels” for instance. So if current events are your thing, bypass the English major and go for journalism.

The best way to successfully pursue the English major is to be a passionate reader. Reading literature is what fuels that degree. You must be willing to analyze it, take it apart and look at it through a variety of lenses. If you don’t like taking literature apart or submitting it to scrutiny, best not to major in English. Academic writing involves critical inquiry so that means you have to be interested in that kind of work.

I love your question and hope you’ll ask follow up questions if you have them.

Julie

Posted in Email, General, Tips for Teen Writers | 9 Comments »